www.stma.org November 2014 | SportsTurf 33
Vitality Seed 737
Savage MD
Vitality professional quality seed is proven to deliver
high quality and trusted performance for seeding
success. Vitality blends & mixtures are formulated
by professional seed experts to provide the finest,
purest, best performing varieties to meet the quality
demands of our customers.
www.vitalityseed.com
Waupaca Sand & Solutions 123
Waupaca, WI
Manufacturer of Sure-Hop Infield Mix, Custom
Rootzone Mixes, Mound Clay, and Tread Warning
Track Stone
www.waupacasand.com
West Coast Turf 106
Palm Desert CA
Growers and installers of premium quality natural
Turfgrass sod.
www.westcoastturf.com
Whitlam Paint Company 736
Wadsworth OH
With over 100 Years of Paint Manufacturing,
Whitlam specializes in environmentally friendly ath-
letic coatings and accessories for both natural and
synthetic surfaces. Our proprietary formulas contain
UV optical brighteners and are used by Sports Turf
Managers everywhere.
www.whitlampaint.com
Wiedenmann North America, LLC 429
Savannah GA
Wiedenmann is a leader in the manufacturing of turf
maintenance equipment for both natural and artificial
turf surfaces.
www.wiedenmannusa.com
Wood Bay Turf Technologies 301
Sun City AZ
Cut, rake and roll- maintain your turf service with
Wood Bay products.
www.woodbayturftech.com
World Class Athletic Surfaces 607
Leland MS
The world's premier manufacturer of quality field
marking paints. We create custom stencils for field
logos.
www.worldclasspaints.com
World Sports Turf and
Marketing, LLC 1008
Valrico FL
Main soccer field contractor for World Cup 2014 in
Brazil. Turn key solutions to new arenas.
www.worldsportsusa.com
Dr. J. Kevin Mathias reports:
As the winning 4-year school at the 2014 STMA
Student Challenge, the University of Maryland
is using the $4,000 award from SAFE to en-
hance student instruction for the lab component
of a course titled "Surveying and GPS Applica-
tions in Agriculture."
Currently the University of Maryland offers
a 2-year academic certificate and a baccalaure-
ate program in Turfgrass Management. The
two-year program added a Sports Turf Manage-
ment option in 2009. The major emphasis of
the 2014 SAFE award was to further enhance
field labs for assessing field hardness and field
moisture conditions on athletic fields using
GPS and GIS technology. In order to accomplish
this, we purchased an additional Field Scout
penetrometer and soil moisture meter that will
be used to assess intramural field conditions on
the University of Maryland campus.
One of the major goals of this course is
to expose students to different instruments
that can assess field conditions and then tie
these devices to GPS units. GIS software is
then used to allow a visual display of data that
provides important insight for field management
decisions. For example based on student field
studies on several of the intramural fields this
past year a geo-spatial map was developed
which showed excessive field compaction at
the 4-inch depth.
Based on this lab activity field manager Alex
Steinman, Sports Turf Manager for Intramural
Fields, used this information to schedule a sub-
soil aerification using a Verti-Quake unit. Alex
commented that the GPS-GIS data logging and
visual data display of this student lab exercise
allowed him to make an informed decision on
the type of aerification equipment needed to
solve their sub-surface compaction problem.
As an educator it is extremely rewarding
to see how new technology is introduced to
students in various course work at the Univer-
sity of Maryland and then implemented within
the workplace. The commitment of SAFE to
promote safe, playable, and sustainable athletic
fields by awarding such grants has enhanced
our sports turf educational program at the Uni-
versity of Maryland over the past 2 years and
we are extremely thankful for this support.
University of Maryland
Student Challenge
